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Sunday, 8 January 2017

This Week in History - Jan 8 to 14

Carrying on
from a few posts I did years ago I am hoping to do a weekly post on interesting
news events and gossip from Pre-code Hollywood history. This can include
everything from marriages to breakups, babies, film developments and release
results. Let me know what you think of the pieces. The first highlights this
week (January 8 to 14) and the newsworthy events in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932,
1933 and 1934. Enjoy!

- 1929:

Alma Rubens

Objections to Alma Rubens’ Prowling – Actress Alma Rubens was not behaving
to the satisfaction of her neighbours in 1929. A number of them her summoned to
court on a charge of disturbing the peace with the actress pleading not guilty.
It seemed Miss Rubens had a habit of prowling at all hours with a flashlight
looking for something she never seemed to find.

Lon Chaney for Silence Only – Lon Chaney flatly refused to appear
in talking pictures. He issued his decision when MGM officials tried to pursue
him to appear in a talking short with other stars. Mr Chaney says he made his
reputation as an interpreter of mysterious characters, that he has only one
voice and it can’t be changed as he changes his makeup or character.

- 1930:

Hawks’ Unit on Retakes when Air Crash
Kills 10 – ten men
were announced to have perished over the Pacific during the making of ‘Such Men
Are Dangerous’ for Fox. The film was finished ten days before the disaster
occurred but director Kenneth Hawks wanted to make retakes. It was during the
retakes that two planes collided and fell burning into the sea. Crew from a
third plane witnessed the tragedy.

Mayer-Thalberg Contracts With Metro
for 5 Years – Louis
B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg of Metro studios and J. Robert Rubin, Metro’s
counsel in New York, agreed upon new contracts for five years each in 1930.
Under the agreements Mayer will have full charge of all business affairs and
Thalberg will be in full charge of production.

Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg

Benson Unit Changes – Elimination of the femme lead,
withdrawal of Phillip Holmes from the cast and a switch in directors were the
changes made to Paramount’s ‘Benson Murder Case’, starring William Powell.
Frank Tuttle replaced Louis Gasnier as director.

- 1931:

Lil Bond Gets Film Start in Stage
Part – MGM announced
it had obtained talker rights to ‘Stepping High’ in which Lillian Bond appeared
on stage. Talker version was the first try for Miss Bond in pictures.

Lillian Bond

Mob Censors Cartoon – Spurred by the peasants’ clergy, a
mob of countrymen started a demonstration against Disney comic cartoon ‘The
Ghostly Hour’ in the town of Klaganfuris, Austria. The churchman said the trick
shots of puppet skeletons dancing in a graveyard were “irreligious, immoral and
blasphemous”.

‘Quiet’ Now Banned in Vienna – All was finally quiet on the
cinema western front by surrender of the Austrian Government to demonstrations
of a few thousand hoodlums against Universal’s ‘All Quiet’. The prohibition
followed three days in which the busiest part of Vienna was transformed into a
real battlefield with mounted police charging the crowd and making 50 arrests
after rioters smashed shop windows and caused heavy damage.

- 1932:

Dodging Hawaii – Radio’s ‘Bird of Paradise’ unit relocated in Florida in 1932 instead of Honolulu because of reported turmoil over attacks by natives on white women there.

Ignore Television – Television failed to create any
big excitement at the annual convention of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science at New Orleans. Television was notably absent from the
major displays and had only a minor presentation.

Gilbert’s Gratis Offer – John Gilbert was so anxious to
play the baron in ‘Grand Hotel’ that he offered to work gratis for the film.
Metro assigned the part to John Barrymore.

‘Sell or Starve’ Routine Makes Fan
Mag Writers Coast Bloodhounds – Variety paper exposed the lengths tabloids went to uncover
dirt news and pictures. These included stealing portraits using candid cameras,
working the friends of film names, posing as somebody else, talking to
servants/ beauty shop workers and ‘going at it keyhole wise’. The paper named
Greta Garbo as a target with photographers climbing a tree in Garbo’s backyard
to get unexposed photos of her.

Greta Garbo

- 1933:

Zukor is 60 – Adolph Zukor celebrated his 60th
birthday on Janurary 7 with a small party at his home.

Dorothy Burgess’ Jam Over Auto
Accident – actress
Dorothy Burgess was the target for a $25,000 damage suit and faced manslaughter
charges. This was a result of a late December, 1932 auto accident in which her
car collided with another and killed, Louise Manfredl, 17.

Dorothy Burgess

Dietrich Still Objects – Although Paramount withdrew its
$185,000 suit against Marlene Dietrich and she had agreed to begin work on
January 16 on ‘Song of Songs’, she appeared on the lot on January 6 and told
the studio executives the story was even less to her liking in its present form
than it had heretofore been. She declared she could not give her part a
justifiable characterization. Someone must have talked her around as the film
was released, with Dietrich in the starring role, in July 1933.

- 1934:

Waxing Mae – Mae West was the newest
personality to enter the halls of Mme. Tussaud’s Wax Works, London in 1934.
Paramount in New York was notified via cable and shipped a dress worn by Miss
West in one of her pictures.

Mae West

Grant’s Illness Slows Paramount’s
‘Come on Marines’ –
‘Come On Marines’ on Paramount’s schedule for last month was shelved
temporarily caused by the illness of Cary Grant in England and a partial story
revamp by Byron Morgan. I’m not sure what happened between January 8 and the
film’s release on March 23 but Grant did not appear in the picture.

Welcome

So what is Precode?

Forgotten Star: Sari Maritza

I'm classic film crazy and have recently discovered the wonderful world of Precode Cinema. I'm sometimes a writer and sometimes other things. The Gods and Goddesses of this era radiate passion and life - they are completely modern and wonderful.